Ireland v Italy

[coonor]

it was the first match and ireland may have been nervous. there was a plan but we need to up our game for the french

poor
Bowe
Kearney


good
Cullen
POC

 

[An Tarbh]

munstermuffin, don't agree with your comments about Cullen, thought he had an excellent game and offered more at lineout time than Donncha, scrum didn't suffer for Donncha's absence either. I gladly take back my comments about Cullen not being an international player, perhaps judging him on performances from 7 years ago wasn't the best thing to do, if he does start next week he won't let the side down.

 

[Olyy]

I thought BOD had a blinder, might not have been as good as usual ball-in-hand, but i've never seen his kicking better, his kick to touch in the second half couldn't have been better, gained about 50m and bounced right next to the touchline

 

[monkeypigeon]

Em, Upsides:

Looked defensively very strong except for that last second break.
Line-out functioned well (as usual).
Scrum was stable. Pushed forward as much as it was pushed back.
All the team showed good hands when spreading the ball...Earls passing has really come on this year.
Kicking from hand was excellent from Bod and ROG
Earls and Wallace seemed to give the backs a little more edge when they came on.

Downsides:
Weren't clinical. There were 2 or three breaks that should have been finished.
Back three were bad...Especially kicking from hand.
Let Italy drag them into a sloppy match.

Good today: Wally, Heaslip, O'Leary, Paddy Wallace.
Bad: Trimble, Bowe, Kearney


Should step it up next week.

 

[An Tarbh]

here's hoping that the last trip to Paris by an Irish team will serve as extra motivation.

 

[MunsterMan]

O'Leary was fairly shite to be fair. You could dash to the jacks and back before he would pass the f***ing ball from the base of a ruck at some stages.

Cullen was good, fair play to him.

The back 3, ROG, BOD, f***ing everybody kicked and kicked until Paddy came on, poor form.

 

[An Tarbh]

O'Leary is one of the few players who doesn't have competition for his place, certainly within the match 22, if Boss had started you couldn't accuse Kidney of not picking on form. He really needs to up his game and during the week needs a massive kick up the arse for his Ellis like performances of late.

 

[munster]

People were critical of him against Northhampton but I thought he did brilliant to stop them getting clean ball off their scrums and thought he took his try well today and thought his box kicking wasnt that bad (even after all george hook's bollocking)...

 

[monkeypigeon]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MunsterMan @ Feb 6 2010, 08:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

O'Leary was fairly shite to be fair. You could dash to the jacks and back before he would pass the f***ing ball from the base of a ruck at some stages.[/b]

He box kicked well, his passing was far better than usual and he scored that try.

Slow passing is usually slow ruckball or waiting for people to get into position.

Definitely his best game in awhile.

 

[An Tarbh]

really doesn't say much for him then if that was his best game for a while.

 

[Olyy]

I thought O'Leary was good in the loose (minus the high tackle), can't really recall much about his work at the ruck/scrum, though that may say someting about it?

 

[lucky_number_7]

from what i could see on the hill trimple was playing very well made a few good breaks and was in support and made the hits when needed too ..was never a fan of his before but today he has grown on me

 

[An Tarbh]

there was never an issue over him offensively but when it came to the try he was woefully out of position, that was his ball to take and he was nowhere near it, the French have exploited this weakness in the pass and will do so again if he starts next weekend. Was still a lazy kick from Kearney in what was his worst ever game in an international shirt, in fact probably any shirt, never played that bad for Leinster, even in that Scarlets HEC match he wasn't as bad as today.

 

[munster]

He was nervous under the high ball... wouldnt pick up the ball for the italian try... and never kicked the ball when he caught it... the gap he went down on the left touchline was because of O'Garas pass and a massive hole...

 

[durbutter]

Leo to start the next match. Seriously on the ball.

 

[gingergenius]

Irish fans - Ireland's performance today means nothing so don't worry. They came up today against probably the worst Italy side since their entry to the tournament, and Ireland just coasted through the game.

Italy's strong point is supposed to be their scrummaging, and they were 2nd best here. Their lineout was appauling. Their gameplan was appauling. Besides some nice touches of class from Gower, they can take nothing positive at all from this game. I'm all for Italy being included in the 6N, but you can understand why some others want them out based on their whole conduct today.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

O'Leary was good in the first half, but a bit 'meh' in the second, and so Ireland slumped. In the two games today, we've seen two cases of the Scrum Half being too slow and causing the team to play badly. (Cooper being the other case.)

 

[shtove]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MunsterMachine @ Feb 7 2010, 08:35 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

He was nervous under the high ball... wouldnt pick up the ball for the italian try... and never kicked the ball when he caught it... the gap he went down on the left touchline was because of O'Garas pass and a massive hole...[/b]

It was a tiny hole picked out by a great pass. Spot on about Trimble's positioning for deep kicks - just not good enough, and no hope of fixing it because at this stage he's either got the sense and confidence or he doesn't.

I'm serious about Wallace as well - not international standard. Some people were impressed with him - apart from ... uuuhhh ... kicking it out on the full by 10m - but it was Reddan who got things going and that still didn't achieve much. It really was all about containment in the second half, except Italy have nothing to contain.

Overall, I think we're in for another painful trudge toward the GS - Kidney will judge things finely for each match so there's just enough in the tank to get over the winning line in march.

 

[munster]

I think earls should definitely start... better than both wingers even in his 25mins (very disappointed with tommy, hope hes out for vengeance against france)...

 

[MunsterMan]

I can't believe it is the performances of Trimble being criticized when Kearney had a shocker, and plenty of others played far worse than Trimble.

Cian Healy - Good scrummaging, not the force in the loose he can be - 6/10
Jerry Flannery - Solid performance - 6/10
John Hayes - Solid performance, much stronger in the scrum than he has been
Leo Cullen - Excellent in the lineout, weak in contact - 6/10
Paul O'Connell - Good in the lineout, good in general - 7/10
Kevin McLaughlin - Promising performance, looked hungry for work but he is no Ferris 6/10
David Wallace - Typical Wally peformance, good on the floor, good in defence and very hard to stop when he gets going 7/10
Jamie Heaslip - Not his best day at the office, but he is class, carried well too. 7/10

Tomás O'Leary - Kicking was good, but it is f***ing pointless taking 20 seconds to organise the forwards so we can be tackled 5m behind the gainline, terribly out of form - 4/10
ROnan O'Gara - Kicked well out of hand, goal kicking excellent, a few nice touches, should have passed WAY more but it's DK's call at the end of the day - 7/10
Andrew Trimble - Some great tackles, looked our most dangerous back, shouldn't have been taken off so early - 6/10
Gordon D'arcy - Solid, a nice break towards the end too. - 6/10
Brian O'Driscoll - Can't fault him really, disappointing he is choosing to kick when he gets the ball in space so often but it is the coaches call. 7/10
Tommy Bowe - Quiet, did SFA. - 5/10
Kearney - Poor, I would have taken him off after 55, just poor - 4/10

Subs - Wallace made a difference, very talented player, unlucky not to be in the first XV. Same goes for Earls, tight call for the 11 shirt next week. Donncha Ryan was hungry and enthusiastic, looked strong in contact. Best played well too, glad to have him back. Reddan is clueless, how we can have scrumhalves playing so poorly with Boss playing out of his skin benching for Ireland A is crazy.